The Event

7 deadly embarrassments / embrassements

Announcement 28 augustus 2000

During a cultural event at the Antwerp 'graanmarkt' market place, a sound collage was broadcasted. It was the announcement of the 3 October live event Nocturnal Transmissions by Twilight Ritual. The same collage was used the hours before the event to 'warm-up' the audience.

The 7 deadly embarrassments manifest the awkward feeling of people when a crisis between the I- and We-experience pops up. We-experiences become ever more seldom and Sartre seems more than ever applicable: "l'enfer, c'est les autres".  In which way this 'hell' is experienced is shown in this collage.

7 deadly bores refer to a range of behaviors not fully accepted by the society, and is a modern interpretation of the "7 sins" - which are judged out of date for a while now - and the sequence 'embarrassments' invites to switch from 'bores' to 'embraces' : a bit of hope, a positive reply, if not this word - in combination with the first half of the title - can be interpreted as '7 deadly embracements'.

Nocturnal Transmissions - 3 Oktober 2000

Concept

Nocturnal Transmissions tries to formulate comments on a selection of social phenomena and evolutions by interpreting them, breaking them loose from their package or formula, decrypt the rules that form the basis of them and use them as media for new meanings, new values. This way the priority of communication-quantity over -quality is exposed, and notably attention is requested for the experience of the sublime over the consumption of the serial.

The "commentators" (in this occasion the musicians) fold back (as a story within the story) during 1 night where they observe the city in its night dressing: the emptied manless frame in which the beauty of human absence can be observed in an - be it incomplete -.inventory of remains or residues of humanity, bit by bit mixed with the interpretation of the commentators.

Over time, "Nocturnal Transmissions" evolves from dusk over night to dawn. Moments during the belief in objectivity - the principle of 'what you see is what you get' - is as much as disposed of. Analyses in black and white are there for those who hold on to simplistic securities. Belief in digital reasoning causes trust in quantity. The basis offers the safe certainty of the utmost simplicity. But culture cannot be reduced to this principle. Intensity and longevity of the experience, complexity, layeredness, and continuous amazement are the silent waters that lave the muses.

Form

Twilight Ritual makes expressive melodious lyrical electronic music, in which complex fragments of traditional sounds and experimental music are bundled in accessible 'songs'. Many expressions find their way however in ambient music: collages of sound, with less reference in structure or melody. The ideas of Twilight Ritual are upon this expressed with graphical media and poetry.

This is why we chose for a project in which different aspects of artistic expression can be combined: the music is performed (partly) live, underlined by powerful graphic statements and poetic intermissions.

Musically: the complexity of most compositions does not allow all instruments to be performed live. Therefore, during the concert, we will rely on help from the computer and guest musicians.